This invention relates to the field of electronic computers and magnetic tape recorders in combination. It is of a type which produces sustained notes and sequences of notes (including musical chords) from small samples of notes. Moreover, the invention provides for making permanent recordings of these sequences and can do so for any voice and device able to produce musical sound.
In the past, there have been a variety of types of apparatus for the synthesis and recording of musical sound. These devices simulate musical sound by summing components found in such sounds. As such, they never faithfully reproduce musical sounds because the summation always limits the number or phase of the components. Moreover, these synthesizers have failed to include variations in sound production for different instruments, thereby producing the same note. Furthermore, they have ignored the generation of combinations of notes to produce chords. In addition, these devices have failed to include the variations of tone properties over time. The result of these limitations has been to produce tones which are "flat" or devoid of qualities as might be found in nature.